Monday, 5 January 2015

HAPPY NEW YEAR to you. Thank you - my lovely customers and blog friends - I have so much gratitude for you. You made 2014 a wonderful and memorable year for us at ChouChou Chateau, thank you again for your friendship and support!

To be honest, things were really quiet over Christmas and into New Year, mostly due the dreaded 'flu bomb' - but that's waaaay in the past now, so here we go... kicking off on the 12th Day of Christmas with this POWERFUL statement piece... A Purple and Gold Sideboard.

I know you want to see the before pics - a really great find - an oak Victorian sideboard with ornate carving. But looking very heavy and frankly GHASTLY in that old brown.

So here's what I did...

Most of the handles are flimsy brass replacements, so the hardware's all removed and she's been given coats of Autentico's Amethyst chalk paint - a lovely rich purple.. The design on these doors is so pretty!

The paint work has been lightly 'shabbied' up with sandpaper. Then dark wax and clear wax have been used to bring through the depth of the design and when everything's been given time to fully dry, deep gold gilding has been added.

I love the relief work on these doors. All the handles have been replaced with sturdy ceramic pumpkins with the same gold coloured finishing.

Tuesday, 27 May 2014

Great name - and really do think I'll look forward to seeing Angelina play the part... meanwhile WHAT do you think of this incredible mirror I picked up? Original 1950/60s and in perfect condition. Hmmm mirror, mirror...

I've also got an number of other great retro, Victorian and Art Deco mirrors in stock - here's a quick look at some.

The largest mirror is a Victorian over-mantle and has some beautiful design.

Saturday, 19 April 2014

I'm always on the lookout for something unusual... and this is my Van Gogh Chiffonier do-over!

I'll try to explain the Van Gogh inspiration at the end of the blog - but first of all here's the cabinet before I started any work...

I was really interested in all the carving on this piece - I'm assuming it's Victorian... Chiffoniers were became popular as pieces of furniture to put 'things' in... and are smaller than sideboards.

The hardware was in bad shape - broken handles on the drawer...

Doors loose or coming away from the hinges. I wasn't really interested in keeping the doors, I thought the natural wood backing and shelves would look great painted with Troubled Water (Autentico's Duck Egg Blue).

This is how everything looked after a couple of coats all over with Autentico's 'Lemon' chalk paint. Actually it is much more lime - maybe unripe lemon.. but definitely NOT yellow.

Then I got started with the dark wax to bring out all that character.

I love the shade it becomes when the dark brown is added.

I've washed through the brown to let the lemon/lime come through.

It shows the carving really nicely.

The inside is left unwaxed - handles on the drawer have changed to white ceramic pumpkins.

The inside of the drawer is painted in the same duck egg colour - I love that green that could be blue - and finished with a shot of silver leaf across the top. The names of these paints are VERY confusing.

These photos show the colours off better than some of the others.

A rustic cabinet...

I love it :-) A great little character piece.

And here's Van Gogh's Chair - the colours inspired me. I saw the Duck Egg Blue background and that Old Lime painted wood of the chair. My finished work is a minute fraction of the price though, very affordable.

Sunday, 22 December 2013

I picked up this chest of drawers and separately an old brown mantle mirror, but painted in the same colour they come together for a great look.

I did think long and hard about what colour to go with - pretty tempted by pink to tell you the truth! But opted for a duck egg blue in the end.

The chest of drawers needed a bit of filling and sanding before I started to get the bumps and knocks out. The handles are solid brass, but I decided to go for a complete refurb and will replace them.

So here's the first look after a couple of coats of paint. There's hardly any sunlight at this time of year but the colour is quite good in the pic. Shame I forgot to take a 'before' shot of the mirror.

After buffing up all over with clear wax, I added crystal pull handles.